No conspiracy here folks
John Kerry made a mistake. We probably did too.
Kerry told some students at a political rally that if they didn’t do well in school they could “get stuck in Iraq.”
One reader, disappointed that we didn’t have a big story about the incident in our Wednesday newspaper, sent us an irate e-mail. She called Kerry’s comments “a slap in the face to our troops serving in Iraq and around the world.”
Kerry has apologized for his comments, calling the statement a botched joke. We’ll apologize as well, calling it what it was, a mistake.
We can’t get inside Kerry’s head – or probably past his political handlers at this point – to know any additional thoughts or agendas behind his comment. I can, however, let you inside The Enterprise to give you a glimpse into our thoughts about the situation.
John Kerry made his comments at a political rally in California on Monday. President George Bush, at a political rally in Georgia on Tuesday night, quoted Kerry and added fuel to what, until then, had been a smoldering politically charged issue.
That smoldering issue became a full-fledged political wildfire (or backfire, some might say) beginning Wednesday, becoming serious Internet fodder as well as the topic of numerous talk shows and newscasts.
Readers depending solely on the printed version of The Enterprise didn’t get the story until Thursday – on page 3A.
There are numerous reasons for that mostly involving some very busy people on a very busy day with some early deadlines.
There also is the fact that the Kerry quote wasn’t major news until late in the day on Tuesday. It actually didn’t blow up until Wednesday. Even if we had printed something about it in our Wednesday paper, it wouldn't have been played as a major story.
The Associated Press moved its first Kerry quote stories just before noon on Tuesday, but other major newspapers didn’t start reacting to the quote until much later. The Boston Globe, Kerry’s home-state paper didn’t move a story until 6:30 p.m. and it was 9:30 p.m. before USA Today decided it was a story.
That said we do recognize our error of omission. Our nearby sister paper, the Houston Chronicle, had the Boston Globe story on page 10A of their Wednesday paper. They followed with a story on page 8A Thursday. Our first and only printed version of the story was on page 3A Thursday though on-line versions were available on our Web page, BeaumontEnterprise.com, through the AP link beginning Tuesday.
It wasn’t a conspiracy, it was a dropped ball. Forgive us and we promise we will continue to try harder to meet your expectations.
Kerry told some students at a political rally that if they didn’t do well in school they could “get stuck in Iraq.”
One reader, disappointed that we didn’t have a big story about the incident in our Wednesday newspaper, sent us an irate e-mail. She called Kerry’s comments “a slap in the face to our troops serving in Iraq and around the world.”
Kerry has apologized for his comments, calling the statement a botched joke. We’ll apologize as well, calling it what it was, a mistake.
We can’t get inside Kerry’s head – or probably past his political handlers at this point – to know any additional thoughts or agendas behind his comment. I can, however, let you inside The Enterprise to give you a glimpse into our thoughts about the situation.
John Kerry made his comments at a political rally in California on Monday. President George Bush, at a political rally in Georgia on Tuesday night, quoted Kerry and added fuel to what, until then, had been a smoldering politically charged issue.
That smoldering issue became a full-fledged political wildfire (or backfire, some might say) beginning Wednesday, becoming serious Internet fodder as well as the topic of numerous talk shows and newscasts.
Readers depending solely on the printed version of The Enterprise didn’t get the story until Thursday – on page 3A.
There are numerous reasons for that mostly involving some very busy people on a very busy day with some early deadlines.
There also is the fact that the Kerry quote wasn’t major news until late in the day on Tuesday. It actually didn’t blow up until Wednesday. Even if we had printed something about it in our Wednesday paper, it wouldn't have been played as a major story.
The Associated Press moved its first Kerry quote stories just before noon on Tuesday, but other major newspapers didn’t start reacting to the quote until much later. The Boston Globe, Kerry’s home-state paper didn’t move a story until 6:30 p.m. and it was 9:30 p.m. before USA Today decided it was a story.
That said we do recognize our error of omission. Our nearby sister paper, the Houston Chronicle, had the Boston Globe story on page 10A of their Wednesday paper. They followed with a story on page 8A Thursday. Our first and only printed version of the story was on page 3A Thursday though on-line versions were available on our Web page, BeaumontEnterprise.com, through the AP link beginning Tuesday.
It wasn’t a conspiracy, it was a dropped ball. Forgive us and we promise we will continue to try harder to meet your expectations.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 1:06 PM
10 Comments:
I was tracking this story on my tiny little blog by Tuesday when I got home from work. By then it had already been picked up by Drudge, Instapundit, DailyKOS and most other blogs. I recognized it as a major story the first instant I saw it.
I used to be an editor and a publisher. I would have made this front page on the very next edition that I could have gotten out.
That's what I considered my job as an editor and a publisher to be. Get the news out.
I have a hard time seeing this story as front page news. The whole body (or a significant portion of it, at any rate) of a politician's work is what I tend to look at when deciding election issues. Every politician says at least one stupid thing from time to time. Obsessing over that one stupid statement to the exclusion of all the other truly significant issues is detrimental to a truly informed citizenry. I much prefer to hear discussion of the issues (note plural).
Singingskies:
You have a hard time seeing how a story that dominated the major media outlest for four days is a front page news story.
You should be fired on the spot.
ummmmmm.....I don't work for a newspaper, and the fact that this particular story dominated the major media outlets, in my opinion (my bias?), has more to do with avoiding other, more important topics.
You can tell yourself what you want to. This was a major news story for several reasons.
#1. It was a major gaffe at a critical point of an election cycle that could change the control of the House and Senate. That alone makes it front page news. I wonder if you carried the Foley story on your front page.
#2. It was a statement that was, on the face of it, a direct and despicable insult to our troops from a U.S. Senator who once called the U.S. military "reminescent of the army of Ghengis Khan" so it was part of a long pattern of such comments. How did you carry the Trent Lott comments about Strom Thurmond?
#3. It was immediately seized upon by the President and the White House and was featured prominently in speeches by the President. People might want to know what he was referring to, don't you think?
#4. It was compounded by Kerry's bizarre refusal to admit that he made a mistake, followed by his claim to have "botched a joke" but his refusal to apologize to anyone for the comment, then his non-apology "apology" where he implied that he was "misunderstood" instead of admitting that he "misspoke."
Your nose for news is pretty bad Singingskies. And I would say you are either in denial about your own inability to spot news, or else you are (and I consider this more likely) intent on joining the media damage control for John Kerry.
Regardless, you are sitting here and cluelessly claiming to have a better nose for news than the entire news bureau of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX, NY Times and every other "credible" news outlet on earth.
I am caught breathless by the arrogance you display.
Oh, and I apologize, Singingskies, for thinking that you were part of the editorial staff of the paper here. I see now that you are probably a private citizen commenting on the blog as I am. So you shouldn't be fired then.
Private citizen or member of the editorial staff, it still does not negate the validity of my original point - what truly major stories have we been successfully deflected from learning about because of the "hot air" storm over one stupid statement? Did Kerry's 'gaffe' keep us from learning about a major ethical breach within the Democratic party? Did the Bush team jumping on the statement and allowing it to flourish keep voters from learning about something which might negatively effect the elections from their point of view? Did we end up missing important news about any of the issues which could have a life-changing effect on us personally or corporately?
We've now spent what? at least a portion of 5 days on this blunder? It's not worth arguing about any longer. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't truly worth arguing about in the first place. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on what is truly newsworthy and what isn't.
Skies:
You and I are not in agreement on this at all. I posted the reasons this was a story and you have simply asserted that it was not a story instead of addressing any of the points I made. I am quite satisfied that the news editors of every major news organization on earth agrees with me on this. The editors of this particular paper apparently agree with you. Which is exactly the problem I have with them.
I have no problem with you, you are not in a position where your ignorance of what is or is not news affects people. They are. So go ahead and believe what you want to believe. I notice none of the editors here have defended their decision. They are letting you do that for them. And you are not doing well.
Again, your assertion that this is just some simple goof that Kerry made is eminently disputable, and since it is absolutely in character with his entire career of slandering the military, forgive me if I don't agree with you that it was some simple misstatement. I don't believe it for a second.
But you know what Sky? The issue isn't even what you or I think about it. The issue is what the MILITARY PERSONNEL think about it.
Which is why the photo that sparked this entire conversation here is also news and is also important.
That shows what the military thinks about this man, and that's why it's news.
I don't have time to keep this up. I probably won't be back here.
John Kerry is an idiot, regardless of what he said or "meant" to say. This guy expected to be elected President and have line item veto power and expected the American people to respect his intelligence to make the decision as to what to veto and yet was not smart enough to figure out that regardless of whether or not the line was a joke, it was still in poor taste. In the words of Bugs Bunny: "What a dolt. What a maroon. What an imbezzle."
Why would the Enterprise need to publish something everyone is talking about anyway? That's called bandwagoning, not news. I think the photo was quite humorous and not only shows the troop's dissapproval for Kerry but also their sense of humor over his stupidity.
BTW, I would love to be as universally intelligent as the cosmicconservative seems to think they are. It must be nice to know that you are SO right. Keep it up! Kudos to you for thinking that someone who disagrees with you should be fired and then eating crow just minutes later. Classic!
*sigh* I didn't figure cosmicconservative would actually hear what I was saying. Sometimes you just have to throw it out there and see what happens. It's a shame that he never realized that we actually agree on something - we disagree!
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